


Say No To This

by Snap_crackle_spock



Series: I'm not throwing away my blaster shot [4]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: I cried a bit, It's my silly star wars AU again, Minor Character Death, haha it's the one you've been waiting for, seriously I love this one, the first stage of grief
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-13
Updated: 2016-06-13
Packaged: 2018-07-14 22:35:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7193645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snap_crackle_spock/pseuds/Snap_crackle_spock
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maria Reynolds is scared of what the First Order has become.</p><p>---</p><p> </p><p>In other words: It's my silly Star Wars AU again, making an appearance in the one-shot we've all been waiting for since I finished book one!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Say No To This

**Author's Note:**

> Howdy hi, guys! If you haven't read my other one-shots or book, 'I'm not throwing away my blaster shot' you can find them all, along with a few other hamilton and star wars things, on my AO3 page. You kind of need to read INTAMBS before diving into this one, but I promise this'll be right here when you're done. 
> 
>  
> 
> Truth time: I'd originally planned to have this up yesterday to celebrate the Tony's, but I wanted it to be good and not rushed, so it's up today to celebrate the Tony's victory.
> 
> So: congratulations to all of the brilliant people that helped give Hamilton the second-most Tony wins ever (second to only the Producers) with a whopping 11 Tony's! 
> 
> And also thank you all for sticking with me on this ridiculous, self indulgent journey!

It was getting boring, and Maria hated it when things were boring. She was still livid about the whole ordeal with John. And not just that he’d beaten her, more the fact that Jefferson was trying to pin their failure on  _ her. _ As if the man wasn’t on the ground, unconscious for most of the battle. Well where was  _ your _ faithful little apprentice, Jefferson? While the Bullet was off doing Maker knows what to ‘train’ the newest batch of StormTroopers, Anna had been fighting right by their side, hardly ever missing a beat. If it weren’t for that damned stutter in her performance, which ultimately lead to Maria stepping in, they would’ve won the day. Her shoulder was healing, though it wasn’t going as well as Maria had hoped. It seemed like every time Anna moved her arm the wound would open up again and they’d be back at square one. 

So, instead of physical training, Maria and Anna were reduced to practicing with the mental part of the Force. They started out small, on simple beings like the maintenance staff of the base. Maria would give Anna instuctions ‘find  _ this _ piece of personal information from them. Don’t let them detect you. Shatter that memory when you’re done.’ and she’d watch her little girl go to work. That’s what Anna felt like at this point,  _ hers. _ She was becoming more and more like Maria every day, and she couldn’t be happier.

She loved watching Anna focus on her task, visibly showing difficulty whenever a particularly hard mission was given. She shouldn’t have been growing emotions for Anna, she was her apprentice, but it only felt natural, like she was the little piece of Maria’s heart that had been missing. 

“Him,” Maria pointed to a StormTrooper stationed outside of the prison ward. Ever since the small break in months ago they’d doubled the security in the area, “I want you to go in, pick out a personal childhood memory, and show no signs that you’re doing it.”

Nodding silently, Anna glanced at the StormTrooper from their place behind the wall. Normally, it would take her two or three minutes, but this seemed to last longer. Far longer. So she did what any sane person would do. She dove right into that guy’s mind right after Anna. 

It wasn’t like a normal head, not like the ones that belonged to whatever Resistance member George had her dig around in. Those were like their own worlds, with hundreds of memories swimming around and you randomly falling into them until you could navigate. In a normal mind, you could step through a door and be on a new planet. This one just felt…  _ wrong.  _

It felt like there was something missing from it, like there was a chunk that should be there but wasn’t. Instead of the mass world that was normally inside everyone’s head, it was just blank. A white expanse with no evidence of a horizon line. And, standing feet away, was Anna, looking around like she didn’t know what to do.

“Where is everything?” The little girl asked, looking curiously up at Maria.

“I don’t know.” A few memories littered the ground, like discarded pieces of paper. Maria picked up the one closest to her foot, and watched it play out. The StormTrooper was sitting in the middle of a large room, his eyes peeled open. The Bullet was in there, too, standing next to a large hologram of a war scene unfolding. When it was over, she just repeated the clip.

“This is what you are. This is all you are. This is all you are good for. You will go into battle. You will win the battle. And you will enjoy it.” She repeated the chant over and over until Maria just dropped the memory, quickly moving to the next with Anna at her side.

“What’s your name?” It was the Bullet again, this time standing alone with the man sitting in a metal chair across from her. Between them was a metal table with a singular button on it. The man appeared to be strapped to the chair.

“Gregory,” He spat before curling in on himself. The memories were viewed in third person, yes, but Maria could still feel everything that was going on with him. She could feel the sense of fire absorbing him. 

“What’s your name?” The Bullet repeated. 

“ _ Gregory,” _ The electricity returned.

“What is your name?”

Breathing heavily, Gregory looked between the button and the Bullet, taking a moment to consider the limited options he had. “My name is GR-7O3Y,” He stated hesitantly, as if she would shock him anyway.

“Good.” 

Maria dropped the memory like it had burned her. She’d known that the First Order was evil, she had no problems with that. She didn’t particularly care about good and bad. But  _ this? _ This seemed like it crossed a line. Killing people was easy, but this was brainwashing until they weren’t even themselves anymore. 

Did George know about this? Surely not. It was probably Jefferson who’d told his little pet to experiment with new persuasion methods. If this was how they were training the StormTroopers now, surely George would’ve told Maria by now. Right?

“Let’s go, Anna.” Maria held out a hand for the little girl to take a hold of. With that final statement and one last glance at the hollowed out version of a mind, she and Anna left with one overwhelming feeling of fear for what was happening around them.

 

She didn’t want to think about what she’d witnessed. It wasn’t her job to think. It was her job to  _ do.  _ She was the muscle of the First Order. And, yes, she made a few calls when in the field. But they were all routine and expected. They were just more ways to fight, just with more coordination. She wasn’t the person who needed to be clever, even if she could be. That was George, he was the brains of the operations. 

All she wanted to do was train in peace without the annoying thoughts and doubts plaguing her mind. She didn’t want to worry if the First Order was becoming more morally corrupt than she’d thought. She didn’t want to wonder if George had been orchestrating all of this. And she most certainly didn’t want to think about why nobody had told her. 

Instead, she focused on breathing. She focused on her breath as her body fell into it’s normal training routine. She allowed herself to relax into the steady rhythm of the one-two punching combination as she assaulted the sand filled bag hanging from the ceiling. She was in her private training quarters, which only she, Anna, George, and Jefferson had clearance for. It was like her own little escape from the mess of a war happening around all of them. 

One-two. One-two. Aim for the stomach. One-two. One-two. Now go for the neck. One-two. One-two. Your only goal is to kill them. One-two. One-two. Repeat.

“Miss Reynolds?” The monotone voice of a StormTrooper rang through the metal door of the training room, interrupting her routine. Typical. Quickly, she unwound the tape from her knuckles and turned to face the door. Before she started moving, though, she glanced at her lightsaber, lying abandoned next to her cloak. Since John had stolen hers ( _ how,  _ she was still trying to work out) she hadn’t gotten the opportunity to get another. For a moment, she considered grabbing it. She’d never needed to worry about a StormTrooper attacking her before, they’d always been at her command. But, if things really were going on in the First Order that she wasn’t in on, she had no guarantee that she was completely safe anymore. If she was, she would be just as informed as anyone. 

That was silly, though. Right? She was the second in command. If George had been keeping this from her, surely there was a reason for it. He’d never given her a reason to mistrust him. 

Except… He had. Months ago, when she’d first found Anna. Maria could still remember the horror that was Corellia. How all of its citizens had been put in chains. And that woman -Anna’s mother- who had begged her for death as opposed to living under those conditions. Anna still didn’t know that Maria had done that.

Holding out her hand, Maria waited for the millisecond it took for the lightsaber to fly into her hand and marched towards the door, clipping the weapon to her belt. Lazily, she waved the door open and leaned against the frame. “What is it?”

“The King has requested your presence,” the Trooper stared blankly ahead, “He says it’s urgent.”

Maria resisted the urge to dig around this one’s mind as well. She needed to trust she wouldn’t find something horrible like she’d seen earlier. If she did George would be able to see it from a mile away. And, while she might be able to shield her thoughts from him, he could most certainly tell when she was lying. She needed to be as blank as that Troopers mind had been. 

“Tell him I’ll be up within the hour.” She turned to leave, waving the door to close, only to have it stopped by the Trooper’s foot. 

“I’m afraid that he insisted that you were to be up as soon as possible.”

With a huff, Maria walked back to retrieve her cloak, swinging it on and following the StormTrooper to the command bay, where George liked to spend his free time. What could he possible want with her? Perhaps the StormTrooper whose head she and Anna had invaded had realized they were in there and reported to George. Perhaps he was going to tell her what the fuck was going on. 

The halls felt louder than usual, and under other circumstances Maria might’ve been excited about that. But now it all felt overwhelming. It was like she couldn’t trust anyone on the base because there was a chance they could turn on her at a moment’s notice. And, of course, she would be able to defend herself against them. But that didn’t excuse the experience of paranoia it was putting her through. 

She hated feeling -dare she say it- scared. It wasn’t in her nature. She’d grown up on this base. It was her home. She had been apprenticing George since she could read, and had witnessed the rise of the First Order. Being unsure of her surroundings was like being uncomfortable in her own skin; it had never happened before and she was completely unprepared. 

“What is this about, George?” She asked, stepping through the door to the Command Bay. George was positioned at the window, his arms folded neatly behind his back and above his cape. It was different than the cloaks that all of his underlings adorned, this trailed down his back and pooled at his feet like a waterfall of blood.  _ Probably the effect he was going for, the dramatic little shit.  _ She shouldn’t be thinking of George as a shit. He was her boss. He was also a little shit. She wouldn’t tell him that, though. 

“It’s nice to see you too, Maria.” He turned, and the crown on his head glistened in the light of the stars shining through the window. Maria had always hated that crown. But, at the same time, she also wanted to wear it one day. One day soon. “You’re early, as usual. The others will be joining us shortly.”

Before she could even ponder what he meant, the two dickiest in the Star Destroyer waltzed through the door, as if summoned by their mere mention. Well, Thomas waltzed (it was just how he moved. There was no better way to describe it. It was elegant and regal but still gave of a feeling of ‘hi, I’m better than you and you won’t convince me otherwise.) Sally moved in a distinctly different manner. She still retained some of Thomas’ flamboyance, but not to the same extent. And while he took each step as if he owned the place, she took hers as if it was her first time being there and she was trying to get the feel for it. She moved silently, fluidly, and almost reminded Maria of herself. Maybe, if she ended up killing Jefferson one of these days, The Bullet would become her apprentice. That would be nice, her, Sally, and Anna ruling the galaxy side by side.

But then she remembered the things she saw inside that Trooper’s head. How The Bullet had tortured and brainwashed him until he was nothing but a shell of a person. She didn’t want to oversee  _ that.  _ She wanted to make sure that whoever it was that she was training still had the spark of humanity left that Sally had lost long ago. 

“Glad that you all could make it on such short notice.” George nodded, his face blank, as the doors shut behind Sally and Jefferson.  _ As if you gave us a choice.  _ Maria wanted to scoff, though she held back for fear of offending the King. 

“What’s this all about, Georgie?” Jefferson leaned against a table his lightsaber peeking out underneath his cloak. Maria remembered when he got it, With it’s stupid little mini lightsabers on the side that did nothing except make it look slightly cooler. It was just so extra. He’d shown it off for all to see, as if everyone on the base didn’t know that Maria was  _ far _ better at wielding a lightsaber than he was. He couldn’t even use the Force properly, or even win in a fight against someone without it. It was no wonder he’d  _ lost _ it the day before the small Resistance team had broken in. 

“I wanted to share something that I’ve been working on for a fair amount of time.” He passed by Thomas and placed a hand on the holotable, and Maria watched as a glowing display shown in the air. It was… A planet. A planet that had a big gun poking through the very middle of it. That was the only way to describe it accurately. 

“What is it, exactly?” Maria asked, taking a step forward to look at the spinning display closer. Upon closer investigation, she realized that it wasn’t  _ just  _ a planet with a canon. It almost resembled a space station. There were little control buildings and vents and tons of little vents and evidence of technology everywhere. 

“I’m calling it the Star Killer,” George said fondly, tilting his head to observe the display like it was his pride and joy.

“It’s… A death star?” Sally asked cautiously, bringing up a darker part of their history. The First Order was what followed the Empire, which had been an epic failure after the second of their army had killed their commander. She averted her eyes from George. The last thing she needed was him thinking was that she was plotting his murder. 

“Better,” He corrected, drawing Maria’s attention back to him, “it’s almost three times the size of the death star. This one has the capability of destroying up to five planets at once, and is the size of a full planet.” 

Maria gaped at it. Destroying multiple planets at once? That seemed like overkill, quite literally. She watched as Jefferson and Sally smirked at the thing, as if it wouldn’t be taking away the lives of millions, if not billions. 

She had thought that Sally would’ve at least understood, the two of them being assassins and all. There was a certain elegance that accompanied their line of work. A sophistication that walked the careful line between being a cold-blooded, psychopathic murderer and not. And assassination was silently, invisibly taking out someone that posed a threat to your organization. And, sure, Maria was less subtle about it than Sally was. But she didn’t just walk around killing people whenever she got the whim. She had a reason. 

This was crossing that line. 

“The construction of it has already begun. We’re basing is on an old planet that’s long-since been abandoned. The total build time of it will take some time because we need to drill near the planet’s core to fit all of the machinery, but it’s going to be our masterpiece. I think this is going to win us the war.” George flicked his hand, opening the door for them. “Dismissed. Miss Reynolds? Would you stay back for one moment?”

Damnit. 

Maria watched as Sally and Jefferson walked out of the Command Bay, leaving her and George alone facing the still revolving hologram of the Star Killer. She’d never been scared of George before, never thought that there was a possibility that he was going to off her. But seeing this  _ crazed _ look in his eye as he watched with satisfaction as the model spun, Maria was suddenly terrified. 

“I couldn’t help but notice you were less than impressed with the design of our new weapon.” He quirked an eyebrow at her, questioning her every move.

“Not at all,” she replied automatically, “it’s a brilliant design. Worthy of all of the praise you’ve given it.”

“Good.” He turned to face her, arms clasped behind his back once again. “I was beginning to worry that you were going soft on me, Reynolds. And, of course, we can’t have that. You’re our greatest asset. I can’t afford for you to to develop  _ feelings  _ at a time when we are so close to victory.”

“Me?” She laughed, hoping he wouldn’t catch how forced it was, “feelings? Sir, with all due respect, you practically raised me. I’m pretty sure that you know better than anyone that I don’t get ‘feelings.’”

“Perfect,” he smiled maliciously, like shark preparing for a kill, before calling, “Samuel, bring her in!”

Maria turned to watch the doors open and Samuel Seabury slid in, followed by Anna. The little girl looked just about as scared as Maria felt. What would they need her for? George hated the kid. Well, okay, maybe not hated. But he definitely disliked her. Maria suspected it had something to do with the fact that Anna was an absolute powerhouse, capable of knocking even the King off his throne. 

“What is this?” Maria demanded, turning to face George and preparing to have her hand spring to her lightsaber. 

“You do remember when our dear friends from the Resistance payed us a visit, yes?” George asked casually, gliding over to face the window again, “now, I understand that you weren’t prepared for the battle entirely, but I’m not completely torn up over you letting those two men get away. No, what I’m more distraught over is the  _ reason  _ you let them escape. All it took was one blow to this child, whom you brought in without my consent, and all of your training and strategy went out the window. This girl makes you  _ weak.” _

Maria didn’t want to admit it, but he was right. She  _ had _ lost control when Anna got hit. She became reckless and brash because she was blinded by rage over someone hurting her. And she’d been too blind to see it. 

“So what are you going to do?” Maria asked, “Send her back to Corellia?” Though, she knew that wasn’t the answer. That wasn’t George’s style. That much she’d seen in what had just happened. 

“No.” 

And just like that, Anna fell to the floor. It wasn’t dramatic, it wasn’t excessive, and it all felt very un-George. Maria had seen it coming a mile away, but there was nothing she could do about it because it all happened so quickly. She felt weak in that moment. Weaker than any time protecting Anna. Now it was all she could do to watch this girl, this person who’d become such a major figure in her life, crumple to the ground. 

“I’ll leave you to it,” George sneered and stepped over her - _ over her- _ and walked out with Seabury trailing on his heels, shooting Maria one last wicked glance. 

She fell to her knees, still in shock. She’d loved Anna, she admitted that to herself now. Anna was the one thing that she’d loved in the entire universe, and George had ripped that away from her. He’d stolen that and Maria was  _ furious. _ She wanted to hurt him. Get revenge in the best way she knew how. 

Leaning over Anna’s body -her body which had now gone cold and it was all only now beginning to catch up to Maria- she grabbed the lightsaber hanging from her belt and attached it to her own. Then she moved to the holotable and set to work on stealing. Every bit of information, every tidbit that she could find, she stole and copied onto her mobile-comm. 

And then she set out. She set out to the hangar, where nobody spared her a second look because she was the second and she was the one people avoided eye contact with at all costs. And as she climbed into her TIE fighter and set out. 

She was going to find the Resistance base. 

She was going to share every piece of information she had.

And, above all, she was going to make George pay. 

**Author's Note:**

> As always, I can't wait to see you all next time! The next one shot (the Theo one) will be up between next Friday to next Wednesday. After that I'm taking two and a half weeks off because I won't have access to the Internet, but then I'll be back and ready to kick off summer officially with the beginning of book two!


End file.
